November 18th, 2004 issue #0346

In the same court on the same day that a cocaine dealer was sentenced to nine years in jail, a former UVA student who stabbed a local firefighter to death received a sentence of just three years– less than a third of the allowable maximum for a voluntary manslaughter conviction.
Almost no one is satisfied.

Virginia, with a maximum sentence of 10 years, may appear to be among the most lenient of the 40 states that recognize the crime of voluntary manslaughter.
According to a federal study, 29 states impose longer maximums. Twenty have a statutory maximum of 20 years or more, and nine have a maximum of 11 to 19 years, leaving Virginia one of 11 states in the 10-years-or-less category.